Burn, Baby Doll
by BlackxRose19
Summary: "You have a name, or am I just gonna have to keep calling you doll face?" One chance meeting in the park turned into more than she ever bargained for. AkuNami. Work In Progress. Rated T. R&R, please!
1. Chapter 1

**So, here I am with a new endeavor. This idea has been in my head for a little bit. Please, read and let me know if I should continue with the story. Thanks.**

**This is Namine/Axel. If you have a problem with that, please leave now. No flames.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot of this story.**

**Reviews are great, constructive criticism is better!**

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"Be careful in the park," was what her mom always told her. "You never know what shifty characters are hanging around there."

As far as Naminé was concerned, the people at the park seemed like a better crowd than the ones she went to school with. As she cast critical eyes around the area, she noted that most of the people there were happy, lovey-dovey couples, or mothers holding hands with hyper, skipping children. Compared to the drug dealers and hotheads at her high school, this was like Girl Scouts.

Her thoughts were interrupted as her pencil slipped from her grasp, falling onto the concrete. She sighed, leaned over, picked it up, and touched it to the sketchpad in her lap, prepared to draw.

"Draw something natural," her art teacher had instructed the class earlier that morning. "Don't give me fantasy, or modern. Go out, find something growing, and sketch it. It's a big grade, so do it well."

The rest of her Art II class had groaned, rolling their eyes and laughing derisively. They wouldn't attempt this project until the day before it was due. They'd hastily sketch a weed growing in their backyard, come to class, and turn it in, pleased with their half-assed work and their C grade.

Naminé, on the other hand, had clutched her sketchpad to her chest excitedly, disregarding the sniggers she received from others in the class. "Ignore them," her friend Roxas had once told her. "They're just a jealous bunch of wanna-be's who wish they had half your art talent."

Naminé wasn't a conceited girl, but she had to agree with that statement. The majority of her classmates were in art for what they thought would be an easy A. The few who actually liked the class received ridicule for it.

So, instead of going home and wasting hours online, Naminé had opted to do the right thing and start her sketch. But everything she drew seemed wrong. She'd been sitting on the park bench for the past two hours and had nothing to show for it but crumpled papers and a stubby eraser. Usually, the art flowed to her fingertips like blood running through her veins. Today, nothing.

Through the kangaroo pocket of her hoodie, she felt her cell phone vibrate against her stomach. Fishing it out, she flipped it open, where the screen read "One new message: Roxas". She jabbed the "inbox" button and read to herself, "hey, u up 4 hangin' 2nite?" His use of constant text-speak frequently annoyed her, but she was almost completely used to it now. She typed back a hasty "Yeah, sure. 6?" and waited until he replied before shoving her phone back into her pocket. Leaning her head back, she sighed.

Roxas. He was as thick as a brick wall and hadn't noticed that she'd had a crush on him since freshman year. Her friends knew, his friends knew, even Roxas's own parents knew. But not Roxas. Naminé didn't usually enjoy the "dumb blonde" stereotype, considering she herself was one, but in the case of her friend, "dumb blonde" was the perfect way to describe him.

Naminé shook her head and returned to her sketching. She stared pointedly at the tree in front of her, touched pencil to paper, and tried to capture the swoop of the trunk, how the half-bare branches looked in the autumn, and how the late afternoon sun shone through what leaves still remained. She cast a critical eye down at the paper and groaned. It looked all wrong, more like something a 5th grader would draw than something she should be capable of. She ripped the paper off the rings, crumpled it, and threw it to the ground beside her. Swooping her blonde bangs out of her face, she squeezed her eyes shut, willing herself to stay calm and regain her artistic ability.

"Hey, now, didn't your mommy ever tell you that littering is bad?"

The voice came out of nowhere, smooth and mildly condescending. Since she still had her head bowed and eyes shut, all she could tell was that the voice came from above, and belonged to a male.

_'Great, now God's reprimanding me for throwing paper on the ground...'_

She tilted her head back, her own eyes opening to lock with vivid green. She yelped a bit and sat up straight, turning herself around to get a better look at the owner of the green eyes.

As her eyes scanned over him, Naminé concluded this was exactly the kind of "shifty character" her mom had always warned her about.

Tall and lanky, the boy towered over her, looking down with a half-smirk on his face, narrow green eyes glinting in the late sun. He stepped over to her discarded drawing, picked it off the grass, unfolded it, and examined it, twisting it in multiple angles, before frowning, refolding it, and handing it to her. "Nice...uh...tree."

She frowned, which only caused the shifty boy to grin more. He ran his fingers through his wild, spiky, red hair, removing the cigarette he had tucked behind his ear.

"You mind?" He asked, the cigarette already clenched between his teeth. Naminé had half a mind to nod, speak up, and say "_Yeah, actually, I do mind. Cigarettes remind me of my dead-beat father who left us a few years ago." _but this was more information that this stranger needed...and she never shared that with anyone.

Instead, she simply shook her head, wondering why he was even asking. Before she could open her mouth and question, he plunked down next to her on the bench. "Thanks, doll face. Addiction's a bitch."

Naminé raised her eyebrows a fraction of an inch, scooting further from the stranger, wracking her brain to think of a way she could just politely excuse herself. _'Hell, why be polite? Some guy I don't know just totally invaded my personal space. I could get up and leave and think nothing of it'._

"You mute, or somethin'?" She glanced nervously out the corner of her eye and found that he was watching her as his hands were busy searching in the pockets of his jeans.

Her pulse quickened as she considered all the horrible things he could be holding in his pockets. She, for a moment, entertained the horrible notion that he was going to kill her, right here, right now, in the park, and steal her belongings. It wouldn't be much. All she had on her was a sketchbook, pencil, eraser, cell phone, house key, and loose change to catch the bus home. Maybe he'd kill her, steal the house key, and go rob her home.

She winced as the stranger suddenly pulled something out of his pocket, sighing in relief when she realized it was just a lighter. She cast a critical glance at him and noted that there wasn't even room for a knife in those jeans, black and skinny and so tight that they had to be girl pants.

He grinned around his now lit cigarette. "Or maybe I just scare you?" He laced his fingers behind his head, leaning back and regarding her out the corner of his eye.

She glanced away, flushing a little, fingers gripping the edge of her sketchpad.

"C'mon, doll, you've gotta give me something to work with here. I'm trying to be nice and polite and-"

"Polite?" she squeaked, in spite of all her efforts to remain quiet. "I don't even know you. You just came over, insulted my drawing, invaded my space, and now you're sitting here, smoking your death sticks and, frankly, making me very uncomfortable!"

Naminé glared briefly at the man before blushing and clapping her hands over her mouth. She realized with growing horror that she had just basically told off a total stranger, a man who was most likely capable of murdering her and dumping her body off on the side of the road.

Contrary to her fears, the man just leaned forward, scooting closer, bumping his foot into the side of her sneaker. "I'm making you uncomfortable?" Naminé tried to edge away, keeping her eyes on the advancing stranger all the while. "Careful, you move any farther and you're gonna wind up falling on your butt while I sit on this bench, laughing at you."

Being this awkwardly close to him, Naminé noted that underneath his eyes were matching teardrop tattoos. She found herself mesmerized for a moment, before her sketchbook clattered onto the ground, snapping her back to self-awareness.

She frowned and the guy backed off, chuckling lightly to himself. "You need to lighten up, sweetheart." He glanced over while she righted herself, grabbing her book and pencil off the floor. "I mean, you can't be more than...what, 13? 14?"

Naminé's frown only deepened and she debated with herself. Her mother's voice entered her mind with another oft repeated admonishment. "_Don't give out your name or age to strangers, honey. Never ever_."

"No." Naminé, truthfully, had no idea exactly what she was saying no to. No to his guess of her age. Or no to this whole strange meeting. The guy took it as the former and raised his eyebrows.

"Hmm..." The stranger laughed to himself. "Girls don't usually tell me no..." He snubbed out his cigarette on the back of the bench, despite the fact that he had hardly smoked it. He turned his body toward her, one arm resting on the stone back of the bench.

"I like you, kid. You're interesting. One second, you burst out talking. Then, all you say is 'no'. Interesting." His eyes glinted somewhat mischievously. "You have a name, or am I just gonna have to keep calling you doll face?"

Naminé opened her mouth to say something, anything, even though her mind was blank. She jumped about a mile in the air as her cell phone buzzed in her pocket. Tearing her eyes away from the man, grabbed the ringing phone, and flipped it open. "Hello?" It was Roxas on the other line, asking where she was, because hadn't they agreed to grab a burger or something tonight? Naminé glanced at her watch and noted with a groan that it was half past six. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, warily watching out of the corner of her eye as the man fished another cigarette from his back pocket, lit it, and stuck it in his mouth. "I got caught up drawing. I'll be there soon." No sooner had she hung up and stuffed the phone in her pocket, the red-head cast a languid glance over to her.

"Ooh, sorry, didn't mean to keep you away from your boyfriend."

Naminé bristled, collecting her things and rising from the bench. If only. "I don't have a boyfriend."

The boy smirked at this. "Ooh, nice. Girlfriend, then? Unexpected in someone like you. But still pretty hot."

Naminé tried to fight the smile tugging at the corner of her lips. Whoever this guy was, he was weird and kind of rude. But he had a way of being nonchalantly funny.

"Not even. Sorry to crush your hopes." She really needed to get going and meet Roxas.

He shrugged and chuckled, more to himself than to anyone. "Hey, a guy can dream, right? I tried."

Naminé rolled her eyes and started to make her way across the park. Part way across the grassy expanse, she heard him calling, "Hey, doll! What's your name?"

She turned back and shouted "Maybe another time!" before resuming her walk to the bus stop.

As she boarded the old, creaky bus and deposited her change, she made a mental note to sketch in a different area of the park next time.

**//Line Break//**

"So, how'd the sketching go?" Roxas was trying, and failing, to talk around a mouthful of cheeseburger. Naminé wrinkled her brow in confusion. All she had heard was some indistinct mumbling. He swallowed, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and tried again.

"I said, how'd the sketching go?" Picking his half-eaten burger up, he nodded toward the sketchbook resting on the table.

"Ah," Naminé sighed, grabbing the book and flipping it open to show Roxas the mostly blank, failed drawings. "It didn't go so well, I suppose..."

Roxas shrugged, chomping off another section of his burger. "Can't win 'em all, I guess. Tough luck, Nams."

Once more, she inwardly asked herself why she liked Roxas. He was literally as dense as a brick wall. Even now, as she sat, picking at her fries and watching him, he was off in another world, twisting around, taking in the black and white linoleum, the red booths, the greasy smell of burgers hanging in the air, all as if he hadn't been going to this restaurant with her weekly.

"Roxas." At his name, his eyes snapped back to her, blue staring into blue. He cocked his head at her inquiringly, with the lost puppy dog face that always seemed to make her heart skip. "Uh...um..." She swallowed hard, gathering herself. "So...what're you going to draw for your project?"

He chuckled at this, taking a long draw of his milkshake. "No clue," he replied, shrugging his shoulders dismissively. "I'm putting it off as long as I can."

"But, why? It sounds so fun."

He grinned sheepishly. "Eh, well, yeah, if I had half your art talent, I'd probably be a little more thrilled to go spend my time outside drawing trees." He dipped a fry into his shake and shoved it in his mouth. "As it is, I'd sooner go home and play video games."

She cringed as he dunked another fry into his chocolate shake. To Naminé, food should be eaten separately. Fries with ketchup and salt, not milkshakes. Roxas saw her reaction, grinned, and held the chocolate-dunked fry out to her.

"Here."

She shook her head insistently. "No, no, that's okay."

Roxas just rolled his eyes. "Open." She opened her mouth tentatively, almost gagging as he shoved the offending chocolate fry between her lips. "Now chew. And if I see you spit it into your napkin, I'll make you try another."

She crammed her eyes shut, chewing the soggy, salty, chocolate flavored fry. And she decided at that moment that, though shake-dipped fries were popular among people her age, she'd sooner eat those nasty veggie burgers that her mom always kept in the freezer.

She chased the fry down with a quick sip of her water, sighing in relief. When she looked up, Roxas was looking at her, head tilted, half-smile on his face. "See, you're still alive. It wasn't that bad." She smiled back, dabbing her mouth on the white paper napkin she'd had on her lap.

"So..." Roxas spoke hesitantly, his fingers tracing the designs on the table top. "Um..." He glanced at Naminé and then looked away almost immediately. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Here it was, he was going to confess that he'd been always madly in love with her, he'd kiss her, they'd walk out holding hands, and they'd ride off into the sunset...

His soft laugh brought her back to earth. "You okay, Naminé? You were, like, spacing out on me there for a second." She just nodded, feeling her cheeks coloring. Roxas raised his eyebrows a fraction, seemingly forgetting what he was going to say.

"Um...yeah...so...good day today?"

"Roxas, you saw me all day at school."

The blonde boy simply shrugged again, folding his napkin into tiny squares. "Yeah, but you took off so fast after school...I just wondered."

Naminé chewed her lip for a second, considering. Would it be worth it to tell him about the weird boy in the park? It wasn't really much of a story, when it came down to it. Some guy had just sat down, bothered her, and then she'd left. She surmised that if she told Roxas about him, he'd just laugh and call her a dork and tell her to be more careful the next time. If she ever told her mom about it, she'd have the young girl on house lockdown until she graduated high school.

No, Naminé realized. There was no story to really be told. So, she shrugged. "Nah, nothing really happened. I went to the park, sketched, and now here we are." She pressed the tips of her fingers together, gazing uninterestedly at her short, stubby fingernails. "You?"

And with that invitation, Roxas launched into a description of his day, class by class, hour by hour. Who he'd talked to, what he had said, what he ate, and what he did after school. He finished his long story with an account of the zombie-slaying video game marathon he had planned over the weekend with his friend Hayner. As always, he invited Naminé to join. And, as always, she said, "I'll think about it". She never accepted. She never saw anything interesting in sitting in the dark, disco ball-lit basement of Hayner's house, squished in a beanbag chair, being offered bowls of chips by the boy named Pence.

As they paid the tab and left the diner, Naminé considered.

Maybe she'd spend her weekend sketching.

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**So, like I said above, let me know if this story has potential. I'd love to keep writing it. I enjoy Axel and Namine.**

**Thanks so much. Oh, and take the Poll on my profile, please!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm back! Oh my gosh, it's been much too long.**

**First off, I'm sorry that this chapter took so long. I beg you to please, please stick with this story, no matter how much time may elapse between updates. I have this whole thing planned out, beginning to end.**

**Second...this chapter has a significant lack of Axel...but, it was necessary. This is, 100%, an Aku/Nami story. But I can't just jump into their relationship or it'll seem unrealistic and weird. So, forgive me.**

**I'm sorry if it seems like I'm making Roxas an idiot...I'm not trying to. Haha, I love Roxas.**

**And...this chapter ended up three pages longer than I intended...**

**Anyway, please enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot of this story. And, technically, I guess I own Naminé's mom and grandma...**

**Reviews are great, constructive criticism is better.**

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As it turned out, Naminé's mom had other plans for her weekend.

"We're going to visit Grandma tomorrow, Nams," her mother had shouted as way of greeting. Naminé kicked off her tennis shoes by the door, depositing her sketchbook on the kitchen counter as she passed.

'_Please say you were kidding, please say you were kidding,_' she pleaded in her mind as she made her way to her mother's room. It wasn't that she didn't love her grandmother. After all, her grandpa had died when she was little and her dad's entire family was essentially out of her life. Gran, as she called her, was her only grandparent.

However, Gran lived alone in a stuffy house in a small claustrophobic town a few hours drive from the city where Naminé lived. She had five cats, all arthritic and old, and the only person who could touch them without getting scratched was Gran herself.

Naminé's mother had inherited the unfortunate love of tofu burgers from her own mother, as it seemed those disgusting globs of faux-meat were the only food ever offered at her dear grandmother's house.

Gran spent her days vegged out in front of the television set, watching old game shows and soap operas. Sometimes, when she was feeling particularly active, she would engage Naminé in a rousing game of Scrabble, making up words that Naminé was 99.9% sure weren't real.

All of these unpleasant reminders of her time at Gran's ran through her mind as she stepped into her mother's bedroom. Her mom was completely absorbed in packing clothes into a small travel bag and as such, she only looked up when Naminé cleared her throat.

"I thought you said we were just going to Gran's for a day." She glanced at the clothes sprawled around the room, trying to guess how many days her mom was packing for.

Her mom looked up, brushing her blonde bangs out of her eyes as she did. "Huh? When did I say we were going for a day?" She tilted her head to the side, frowning slightly as if trying to recall.

Naminé also loved her mom, but she had always been and probably would always be a slight ditz.

"Well...," Naminé began, nudging the floor with her toe, "You said 'We're going to visit Gran tomorrow', so I thought you meant _just tomorrow_...as in..._just_ Saturday." She tried to emphasize the "just", hoping her mom would get the point that she had other things to do this weekend.

Naminé's mom laughed lightly as she shoved a pair of shoes into the bag. "Oh, well, honey, we haven't seen Grandma for so long, I thought it would be nice to visit her for the weekend." Naminé opened her mouth to protest, but was cut off swiftly by her mom.

'_Here comes the guilt trip...' _Naminé groaned inwardly.

"Besides, Grandma isn't getting any younger, hon. Who knows how much time she has left?"

Guilt tripping Naminé about Gran was something her mom resorted to 90% of the time, always waxing poetic about how Gran could pass away at any day. In reality, Gran was only 60 and was an active participant in charity walks and water aerobics at the senior center. That boy from the park, with his cancer sticks, would probably die sooner than Gran.

'_Wait__...Why am I even thinking about him?_' Naminé was surprised to feel a tiny twinge of disappointment that she wouldn't be able to go to the park and sketch that weekend. _'Yeah, that's right. I'm disappointed because I can't sketch! Not because I wanted to see that boy or anything..._' She sighed deeply and her mom looked up, concerned.

"Baby, I know you're a young thriving teenage girl and you would rather spend the weekend discovering yourself." She put her arms around Naminé as she spewed her hippie phrases. "But Grandma really loves seeing you. It's just for a couple days."

'_Of course,'_ Naminé thought, _'She thinks I sighed about going to Gran's.' _Naminé shrugged to herself, realizing it was probably better that her mom didn't know about the boy. Her mom took her shrug as a sign of forfeit and smiled.

"Naminé, honey, it won't be bad at all! Now go pack! And remember to bring long sleeves. The cats, you know, they scratch something awful."

**/Line Break/**

If her life was like those in cheesy high-school romance shows, she would've gone to her Grandma's and, magically, everything would have been better than she had thought. Her grandma would be on a new, yummy food kick and she would serve Naminé heaps and heaps of homemade macaroni and cheese (Naminé's favorite dish). They'd go to the mall, buy clothing and girl-bond and giggle as they got their nails done. The five scratchy cats would have magically found a new home for the weekend. Her grandma would have a new fascination in romantic comedies (Naminé's favorite movies).

Naminé would have strolled down the street, bumped into the cutest boy in the world, and they would've gone on a date. Roxas would magically hear, become totally jealous, and show up to sweep Naminé off her feet and out the door. They would then ride into the sunset.

But Naminé's life was the furthest thing from a rose-tinted rom-com.

It was two days of hell, to put it nicely. Veggie burgers. Tofurkey. Some awful congealed mess that was supposed to be tofu pancakes. Because, yes, her grandma was now a total vegan.

Gran's house was drafty and cold. The mattress in the guest room was lumpy and smelled like cats. The aforementioned cats were in a scratchier mood than usual, it seemed. No matter how many shirts she had on, she still returned home with numerous little red lines all over her arms and legs.

She didn't magically bump into a cute boy and Roxas, for his part, seemed less than interested in her plight. He had texted a hasty "Nams, where r u?" sometime on Saturday afternoon. She had replied with a lengthy description of the weekend from hell and Roxas' charming reply has been "Whoa, that sux. Sry, Nams. C u Monday?"

And now it was Monday. Slumped in her seat with her head on her desk, Naminé never thought she would be so happy to be back at school. But, compared to her Gran's cat-infested home, her high school, overcrowded and filled with the permanent smell of school lunch, was like paradise.

She was just about to doze off at her desk when a voice sounded from above her.

"Naaaaah-miiiiiih-naaaaay!" The relatively familiar voice dragged her name out and she felt a finger poke her shoulder. To no real surprise, when she looked up she beheld Kairi standing in front of her desk, finger poised to poke Naminé once more.

When her gaze met Kairi's, the red-head frowned. "Geez, Nams, you look absolutely awful."

Naminé straightened up, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. "Thanks, Kairi. Nice to see you, too." She waved at Sora, hovering slightly behind Kairi, looking like he wanted to sit down, but unable to get past his girlfriend who was currently blocking the aisle. "Kairi, I think Sora-,"

Kairi whipped her head around, as if she had just remembered that the brunette was standing behind her. "Whoops, sorry!" She scooted out of the way, relocating herself to sit atop Naminé's desk.

"Anyways," She looked down at Naminé, taking a tube of lip balm out of her pocket. "You look beat. Tough weekend at Gran's?" Kairi and Naminé had been friends since they were in Kindergarten; they often treated each other's families like their own. In fact, it seemed like Kairi was over at Naminé's for dinner more often that she ate at her own house.

If anyone knew about Gran and the cat emporium, it was Kairi.

Naminé sighed. "Yeah...she's gone totally vegan now. And the cats seemed crabbier than usual."

Kairi raised an eyebrow as she slicked the lip balm over her lips. "Vegan? How do you even eat normal things?" She made a face, disgusted.

"You don't." And then, Naminé proceeded to relate back the story of the infamous attempt to make vegan pancakes and how, in the end, they had essentially tasted like dirt and had the consistency of glue.

Kairi had gagged and made faces at all the right moments, sympathizing when Naminé had told her, in a hushed tone, how Roxas hadn't been much comfort at all. "He's a boy," had been her reply. "Boys have the emotional range of a blade of grass."

Naminé had just been considering telling Kairi about Friday and the boy at the park, absentmindedly chewing her fingernail as she contemplated the outcome. However, right as she had been about to share the story, their teacher had walked in and Kairi had scooted off of her desk. "I'll see you later, Naminé."

And with that, class started and Naminé dozed off to the sound of her teacher discussing Ancient Greece and their numerous wars.

**/Line Break/**

Naminé desperately wanted to take a nap. Preferably in her own bed, not a school desk, and not a bed which smelled like cats.

However, she had just finished lunch and still had three more classes to get through before she could finally go home. Even at home, she had a mountain of homework to take care of and, no doubt, her mom would have some weird chore for her, such as to organize the cans of vegetables in the pantry.

On the other hand, she took a little bit of joy in knowing that her next class was art. She loved her art class; it always smelled like paint and charcoal. The ceilings were high, the windows large, the room filled with sunlight; it was just the kind of place she wanted to live in if she ever had an art studio.

She sat down on the stool at her customary art table, taking out her pencils, eraser, and the sketchbook filled with her failure attempts at sketching a tree. She flipped the pages, disgusted; she had forgotten how bad the sketches had been. They were truly awful, the lines shaky and the shading all wrong.

She groaned and plunked her head down on the desk, exhausted and frustrated with her drawings.

"Uh...are you okay?"

Her head shot up at the voice. Roxas was standing at the table, setting down his backpack.

She waved her hands and assured him that, despite what he saw, she was perfectly fine. He just shrugged, sat down, and took out his own sketchbook, flipping the mostly blank pages absently.

Naminé often wondered why Roxas even took this class. It was obvious to her that he loathed nearly every moment of it. Every time their teacher gave out a new assignment, he would sigh in annoyance and mumble something about not understanding "why we even have to do this stupid project in the first place".

Once, she had even asked him why he was in the class, since it was clear he didn't enjoy art. He had just smiled and replied with, "Oh, I dunno, I thought it'd be cool. Plus, you're in it. You're really good at art and I thought if I took this class with you, maybe some of your genius would rub off on me." She had blushed profusely, something which had been totally lost on Roxas.

Now, as they practiced drawing realistic flowers, she could hear Roxas grumbling under his breath, erasing so hard that it ripped through the paper.

"Roxas," She touched his arm gently, stopping his vicious erasing. "Be gentler. You're going to ruin your paper like that."

He stuck his tongue out, though she knew it was directed at the drawing and not her. Half-heartedly, he glanced at her perfectly drawn flowers. "Geez, Naminé, how are you so good?"

She felt her face heat up once more as he gazed at her drawing appreciatively. She poked her fingers together, sheepishly. "Oh, I don't know...I just...practiced, I guess." She chuckled nervously, ducking her head down. She imagined she was as red as a tomato by now.

She heard Roxas crumple his paper and watched as he stood up and tossed the offending drawing in the trash. He sat back down, yawning. "Ah, whatever, I'll practice some other time." He looked over at her again as she dutifully drew a rose. "How was your weekend?"

She shrugged and, for a second time, related the story of her cat-and-tofu weekend at her grandma's, omitting the part about Roxas not offering much sympathy when she had texted him.

"Man, that's awful. What a weekend." Roxas in real life was a great deal more sympathetic than the Roxas-by-text. Still, after she had finished her story, he had wasted no time in jumping into a retelling of his, as he put it, "hardcore" weekend. Still drawing flowers, she had nodded and had tried to seem as interested as possible, given that she had no idea what he was talking about.

Having finished his story, he fished in his bag and pulled out a bottle of water. After taking a long swig, he wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his sweatshirt and replaced the bottle. "Y'know," he began, leaning his elbows on the table and placing his chin in his hands, "You should really come over sometime and hang out with all of us." She made a noise to protest, but he cut her off. "You _never _do, Nams. You're _always_ busy. Or you tell me no." Without looking up from her drawing, she could tell he was giving her the puppy dog look. She could hear it in his voice.

"Roxas...I'm just...I don't know, I'm not really..." She didn't want to say that she didn't like video games. Video games to Roxas were like water to a fish. She chose her words carefully. "I'm not really..._good_...at video games."

His face brightened considerably. "I could teach you! I'm good at games, I promise. You know Pence? I taught him. He used to _suck _at video games." She knew her face still showed doubt, for he began to plead. "Come on, Naminé! Just one time? It'd be fun! Please...? Please, please, pleeeeease?"

The look on Roxas' face was way too adorable. Damn him for being so hard to resist. Just once, she wished Roxas would stop asking her to play video games and ask her out on a date.

Still, she would take any chance to hang out with Roxas. So, she nodded, albeit half-heartedly. "Yeah...that sounds fun. I'll come over sometime."

Roxas beamed. "Awesome. You won't regret it, I promise."

And she smiled back, caught in his infectious joy, but knowing that video games really weren't her thing.

**/Line Break/**

Chemistry was Naminé's last class of the day and never had it seemed to drag on so long as it had that Monday.

They had started class by assembling into their lab groups. Naminé's oddball teacher had insisted on dividing the class into teams based on their first name; most teachers would have divided them by last name. As such, Naminé's two lab partners were Olette and Pence.

Both were friends of Roxas but, she had to admit, she didn't know them well at all. Pence was a short, slightly chubby boy, but he had a nice demeanor and always seemed eager to work on whatever they were doing in Chemistry. Olette was a slim brunette, always smiling and cheerful. Of all the people in her class, Naminé had to admit that she had probably lucked out when it came to lab partners.

On that day in class, they had all assembled around their assigned lab table. Pence was performing the lab, following the directions Olette was reading off and Naminé was recording their data on a sheet of paper. They hadn't been working more that fifteen minutes, however, when Olette spoke up.

"Naminé," The girl in question had looked up from the equation she was writing on their lab sheet. "I'm really excited that you're going to come and hang out with us on Friday!" Pence nodded in agreement, obviously just as excited as Olette.

Naminé merely gaped. First of all, she had never actually _said_ that she would come over _that Friday_. Second, how had they found out so fast?

And so she asked, "How did you find out so fast? I just told Roxas a couple hours ago."

Olette smiled and held up her hand, which, Naminé could see, held a cell phone. She handed it to Naminé, who read the message from Roxas: "Hey, Nams is gunna hng out w/us on Friday! XD."

Beholding the horrible text-speak, she had to hold back a sigh as she returned the phone to Olette.

Olette giggled. "Yeah, he was really excited. He texted us right away and told us." She pocketed the cell phone. "He's so cute. He gets really excited about his video games."

Something about Olette calling Roxas "cute" made Naminé's stomach twinge a little. She realized that she didn't actually know that much about Olette and, as such, didn't know that the girl was part of the Friday night video game fest. She mentioned this fact to Olette, casually weaving it into the conversation as she wrote down more numbers on the lab sheet.

Olette giggled again. "Yeah, I've only been going for a few months. I think the last time you went was right before I started hanging out with them."

Naminé frowned, glancing at Olette as the brunette was occupied elsewhere. She was actually really pretty. And she was so nice and optimistic. However, she didn't really peg Olette as the video game type. She was tall and slim, a member of the school's volleyball and swim team. She was more of a tomboy than anything else.

And then Naminé realized, maybe they just saw Olette as one of the boys. Maybe there was nothing to worry about. She took comfort in this fact, pushing the thought out of her mind that Olette, perhaps, also liked Roxas.

**/Line Break/**

However, the horrible notion which Naminé thought she had successfully pushed out of her mind came back in full force later that night. She had been sprawled on her stomach, lying on her bed and flipping through her notes for English. And she just couldn't get that stomach-sinking feeling out of her mind.

'_What if Olette likes Roxas...?_' She groaned into her pillow and rolled over onto her back. The ceiling fan cast eerie shadows on the ceiling as it spun round and round, a light breeze blowing across her face. It might have been October, but her house was just a little too stifling.

"Maybe Kairi will have some advice...," she spoke this thought aloud, propelling herself up into a sitting position and digging her phone out from her pocket. Punching the numbers for Kairi's cell, she held the phone to her ear and listened to it ring.

"Naminé!" Kairi's cheerful voice greeted her on the other end. "What's up?" Naminé sucked in a deep breath to ask Kairi her burning question, but was swiftly cut off. "Oh my gosh, no, wait a second! I totally have something to tell you, I'm glad you called!" Kairi then launched into a story of how she totally thought Sora wanted to ask her to the Homecoming dance ("_Gosh, it's still, like, a month away. He's so over-eager. Adorable, right?_") and how she wondered if Riku minded ("_He used to have a little thing for me, y'know?_"). Naminé, for her part, provided the right replies when necessary, agreeing that, yes, Sora was over-eager and that, yes, she remembered Riku's brief crush on her when they were freshmen.

When Kairi was finally done, she paused. "Oh, oops, sorry, Naminé. You probably called for a reason, right?"

Naminé nodded and then, realizing that Kairi couldn't see her nod over the phone, mumbled, "Yeah."

"Oh, wait! Before I forget, do you want to come over for dinner on Friday? My mom keeps asking when you're going to come over again."

Naminé chewed her lip in contemplation. "Sorry Kairi. I kinda already made plans...with Roxas."

Kairi cooed on the other line. "Ooh, a date? You go get him, Naminé!"

Naminé merely sighed and related to Kairi how she had been roped into participating in "hardcore video game night" at Roxas'.

"So? You still get to hang out with Roxas. What's wrong? You sound kinda...unhappy about the whole thing."

"You...uh...you know Olette, right?"

There was a pause on the other line while Kairi contemplated. Finally, she replied, "Hmm...yeah, I do. Your Chemistry partner?"

"Yeah." Here she paused to take a deep breath. "Kairi, do you think...do you think that Olette likes Roxas?"

She could hear Kairi sighing on the other line. "Hmm...I don't really know, Nams. I guess...she could...? I'm not sure..."

Naminé opened her mouth to reply, but Kairi cut her off again.

"Roxas is _your_ friend, Naminé. You would know better than I do."

**/Line Break/**

By the time Friday's art class rolled around, Naminé still hadn't made any earth shattering conclusions about Olette. To make matters worse, she saw there was no way to get out of hardcore video game night.

However, in the midst of all her panic and strife, she realized that she had gone an entire week without sketching. The due date for their assignment was getting closer and closer, as she realized in panic.

"Oh no!" She looked up from her sheet of paper, frantically glancing around. Roxas, to her left, raised his eyebrows.

"What's wrong?" He sounded adorably panicked. "Are you okay?"

She shook her head, clutching her pencil tightly in terror. "I didn't...work on my assignment."

Roxas visibly relaxed at this. "Is that all? So what? You still have ton of time."

"'Is that all'? No, Roxas, don't you see the problem?" Naminé looked at him. It was quite obvious that, no, he didn't see the problem.

"If I don't do this assignment, I'm going to fail this class! How will I get into an art college if I fail this class?"

Roxas shrugged slightly, looking alarmed at her intensity. "Naminé, we're 16. You still have two years to decide this!"

She slammed her sketchbook down on the table. "I know! I'll go to the park and sketch immediately after school!"

Roxas sputtered. "Bu-but, you said you were hanging out with us, Naminé." She didn't have to look to see the puppy dog eyes.

Naminé shook her head. "I know..." She couldn't miss this chance to hang out with Roxas...and to observe Olette. "How about I just meet you guys later? I'll go sketch and then we can meet up, okay?"

Roxas, after some coercing, had eventually agreed. He had told her to meet them at their customary burger joint at 5:30. "And I mean _a real 5:30_, Naminé. Don't make me get all concerned like last week."

**/Line Break/**

Naminé deposited her change and stepped off of the bus, taking in all the sights of the park. She had jumped on the bus as soon as school ended, stopping briefly at her house to exchange her backpack for a small bag which she filled with money for dinner, bus change, her house key, and everything she needed to draw a proper tree.

Now that she had made it to the park, she squinted around, trying to determine the best spot to sit and draw. Taking the position of the sun into account, she traipsed across the park, taking care to avoid the little kids and skateboarders running amok across the grass.

The park bench was cold as she sat down, but she had no time to pay mind to her discomfort. She _had_ to get this picture right. It was starting to get too cold and too dark to keep coming to the park after school.

She hunched over her paper, pencil poised and ready. She heard footsteps from behind her, but dismissed them as simply someone walking through the park. However, a shadow fell over the flower she was drawing, effectively ruining her lighting and the smell of cigarette smoke wafted over her. She was just getting ready to turn around and inform whoever this was that they needed to get their cigarette out of her breathing space and their shadow out of her drawing, when a voice spoke.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Little Miss Doll Face..."

* * *

**Like it? Love it? Hate it? Well, press that rather large and imposing "Review Chapter/Story" button and tell me, please!**

**Yes, cliffhanger! If you guys paid _any _attention to the first chapter, you should know who it is...haha.**

**Chapter 3 will bring back Axel and all his sarcastic glory. **

**Also, to clarify, Naminé is 16. Naminé, Roxas, Kairi, and the rest are in 11th grade. Her school follows the type I went to, since it's the only type I know. The school week is Monday through Friday, the school year is August through May, and high school is 9th-12th grade.**

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